Photo above Taken by ye olde Special Uncle (note shoe at 3 o’clock) during a delightful chance encounter with him and ye olde Special Aunt outside one of our town’s most venerable coffee emporiums. Emporia. Whatever.

Peet’s will always be second to Cafe Med, though, where Ginsberg wrote “Howl,” where a scene fromÂ The Graduate was shot and, perhaps most notably, where European espresso coffee was first introduced to not just to the East Bay but pert’ near the West Coast. By genuine, Italian and Italian-trained baristas working the largest espresso machine in North America.